All Chained Up (Devil's Rock #1)(40)

He was staying. Spending the night.

Every alarm bell in her head should be going off, but she could do nothing but hold herself still against him, her heart beating like a drum in her too tight chest as he wrapped one hard arm around her waist and pulled her back until she fit snug against his chest.

Briar finally found her voice. “What are you doing?”

“Going to sleep.”

She moistened her lips, somehow doubting she would ever be able to fall asleep like this. She had never slept with a man before. She and Beau had always gone to their separate beds. This was alien and strange. And it was Knox Callaghan. At the moment that struck her as the weirdest thing of all. He had been an inmate a short time ago, as off limits as a guy could get, and now they were spooning in her bed.

But it didn’t seem to affect him. She listened as his breathing slowed and evened. He was actually going to sleep. She squeezed her eyes shut in a hard, punishing blink, telling herself she would never be able to do the same. Not with his big, delicious body wrapped around hers. It wouldn’t be possible. Her hand came up to cover his forearm, enjoying the tight ropes of sinew beneath his skin that made her feel so safe. So protected. That was her last thought before she drifted to sleep.





FOURTEEN


KNOX WOKE WITH a start in the dark, disorientated . . . feeling like he was back in the prison again. In the hole where everything was darkness and cold. He whimpered, feeling lost, alone. Except there was warmth. Another body beside him. Wrapped up around him. Soft with sweet-smelling hair and a rounded ass that was rubbing against his dick. Pears.

His body knew her. Wanted her. He curled a hand around her hip and dipped down her navel to her beckoning *. Thighs parted sweetly at the first foray of his fingers. She was wet. Ready for him.

Briar sighed, moaned his name and rubbed back against his cock. He didn’t even hesitate. He removed his hand and positioned himself, sliding inside her, pushing deep. Tight heat surrounded him and he ground down against her, pumping faster, sliding through her slick warmth. Nothing had ever felt this good. So perfect.

Soft cries filled his ears, and his hands found her breasts, molding the plump mounds as he rolled over, pinning her under him and working in and out of her body.

“Knox, yes, yes, yes . . .”

The sound of his name drove him into a frenzy. She grew tighter around him, closing and squeezing him like a fist as he pumped in and out of her, slamming into her hard. He pushed and pulled and came with a groan, spilling himself deep inside all that sweet, milking heat.

He collapsed on the pliant body under him, feeling as warm and satiated as he had ever felt.

“Uh,” a voice said from under him, “you’re a little heavy.”

He stiffened and jackknifed into a sitting position.

He fixed wide eyes on Briar as she lifted to a sitting position beside him.

He dragged a hand over his skull, chafing the back of his head where the hair was the shortest. “Oh, God.” He’d just f*cked Briar. Half asleep. Without a condom. “A-Are you okay?”

He inhaled a thin breath, wondering if this was what he had become. It was one of his worst fears. That the Rock had made him into a monster that destroyed those softer than him.

She released a breathy little laugh that didn’t exactly scream you-animal-get-the-hell-away-from-me. “Well, that was one way to wake up, that’s for sure.”

“Oh, shit, Briar.” He reached out a hand to touch her and then dropped it at his side. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“Why are you apologizing? I wanted it, too. I didn’t tell you to stop. I didn’t say no.”

I didn’t say no.

He tried to take comfort in that. He did, but he wondered . . . would he have heard her if she had? Bile rose in his throat because he wasn’t sure. He hated himself right then. How could he be . . . this? It became painstakingly clear to him that he needed to get as far as possible from Briar Davis. Before he f*cked up her life as much as he had his own. He dragged both hands over his skull.

She sighed then, looking so calm when he was losing his shit. “I guess the whole no condom thing was reckless,” she admitted, and that’s when he heard the shakiness in her voice. She wasn’t as composed as he thought.

“I’m clean, Briar,” he sought to reassure her—of at least that one thing he could reassure her. “I don’t use drugs . . . I haven’t been with anyone in a very long time.” It felt like forever. Because the last time he was with a girl, he had been that other person. A boy. The Knox Callaghan of another life. Another world and time. That Knox Callaghan might have been good enough for the likes of Briar Davis. He could have asked her out and taken her on an actual date. The kind of thing that good people did. Guys that didn’t kill. Guys that didn’t spend the better part of a decade penned up like an animal.

She hesitated. “Really?”

He sucked in a breath and admitted what she needed to hear. What she deserved to hear. “I haven’t been with anyone since I went in. When I was twenty. And I didn’t have sex while I was in there either.” It was necessary to state. Plenty of guys did. Both willingly and unwillingly.

“Wait . . . so you’ve been out for almost two months now?”

“Yeah.”

“And you haven’t . . .” She couldn’t hide the incredulity from her voice or the widening of her eyes in the gloom of her room.